


A Good Man

by Shiori_Makiba



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: #nickspencerishydra, #sayitaintso, Bigotry & Prejudice, Children In Danger, Civilized Fan-Rage, Consider Your Headspace, Death Threats, Defamation, Gen, Implied/Referenced Torture, Kidnapping, Literary References & Allusions, Poetry, Threats of Violence, heed the trigger warnings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-31
Updated: 2016-05-31
Packaged: 2018-07-11 09:35:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7042699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shiori_Makiba/pseuds/Shiori_Makiba
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve Rogers is a good man.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Good Man

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Love Is for Children](https://archiveofourown.org/works/684731) by [Ysabetwordsmith](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ysabetwordsmith/pseuds/Ysabetwordsmith). 



> Part of the Poke A Bigot In the Eye response to Captain Hydra nonsense started by ysabetwordsmith.

“A Good Man”

Steve Rogers was a good man.

You wouldn't think so  
if you listened the man ranting at him  
but Phil had learned long ago  
how to deal with villain monologues.

You had to look  
like you were actually interested  
in whatever they were rambling on about.

Because, often while they were talking,  
they weren't physically hurting you or anyone else.  
And because it gave your rescuers  
more time to find you.

Phil knew the Avengers were coming  
for him and the other captives.  
They just had to wait.

You also had to pay a certain amount  
of attention to the monologue.  
Because sometimes they let slip  
something actually important.  
And because it could alert you  
to when they were done talking  
(for the moment) and were going to try  
hurting you again.

Sometimes you get them  
to continue ranting  
by saying something to them  
whenever the speech started  
to wind down.

It didn't always work.  
But it was something.

Villain monologues were all pretty similar.  
The villain's grand plan and  
how you were powerless to stop them.  
How long and painful your death was going to be.  
Or the deaths of your friends and allies.  
How badly they were misunderstood,  
the real hero while the real villains  
run around applauded and praised.

This particular HYDRA goon  
seemed to like that last one.  
A lot.  
He had been ranting about  
how HYDRA (and himself) were the real heroes.

The ones who were going to save Earth  
from everything that was tearing it apart  
(Which seem to range from women with the vote to queer people).

That the heroes like the Avengers  
or the Fantastic Four were the real villains,  
preventing Earth from being saved  
from the real evil.

He had trash-talked all of the heroes  
but seemed to possesses a special loathing  
for Captain America.

Every complaint about the other heroes  
always tied back to Captain America somehow.

That was in-between the rounds of  
how brilliant his grand plan  
and the usual threats of violence.

There had been some actual violence.  
But Phil had been tortured by experts  
and this guy was not an expert.

But Phil was willing  
to let him think he was.  
Just like he was letting him think  
that Phil was actually listening  
to this nonsense.  
That he was afraid.

It was easy.  
It wasn't as if  
because he could withstand  
a lot more pain than this  
that his injuries didn't hurt.  
And he was afraid.

Not of the HYDRA agent himself.  
No, he was petty little loser who,  
in a straight fight,  
Phil was more than capable  
of handling on his own.  
But he was afraid of  
what the man might do.

Because Phil hadn't been captured alone.  
And he would put up with a lot to ensure  
that the HYDRA goon keep his attention  
on him and not the children.

So he let the evil man have  
what he really wanted out of this encounter.  
He moaned and groaned at the pain.  
He let him see the fear.  
He allowed himself to squirm.

And evil man, as evil men often do, fell for it.  
He talked.  
He gloated.  
He watched him squirm.

He put off the moment of murder and even true pain  
until he was slammed to the ground  
by a familiar figure in a red, white, and blue suit.

No warning,  
just a blur of motion out of the corner  
of Phil's eye and suddenly were was a  
HYDRA goon on the ground and  
trying to break the Captain's hold on him.  
Unsuccessfully it should be noted.

'Terry Pratchett really was an astute observer,' Phil thought.  
'A good man really will take you down with hardly a word.'

Thank everything that Steve Rogers was a good man.

**Author's Note:**

> The title comes from a quote from the Terry Pratchet Discworld novel, Men at Arms.
> 
> “If you have to look along the shaft of an arrow from the wrong end, if a man has you entirely at his mercy, then hope like hell that man is an evil man. Because the evil like power, power over people, and they want to see you in fear. They want you to know you're going to die. So they'll talk. They'll gloat. They'll watch you squirm. They'll put off the moment of murder like another man will put off a good cigar. So hope like hell your captor is an evil man. A good man will kill you with hardly a word.”


End file.
